aletten.
/əˈlɛt/, /aˈlɛt/, U.S. /əˈlɛt/ Architecture.
In classical architecture: each of the parts of a pier (pier n.1 2a) visible between engaged columns or pilasters, typically forming the abutment of an arch. Formerly also: †a piedroit; †a jamb (jamb n. 2).
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alette1810
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jamb1687
piedroit1696
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alette1810
1810 C. James New Mil. Dict. (ed. 3) II. App. (at cited word) Alette, in architecture, the side of a pier between two arcades: alettes also signify jaumbs, or piedroits.
1894 Amer. Architect & Building News 31 Mar. 154/1 Even so familiar a term as ‘dormer’ is forgotten in favor, seemingly, of such abstrusities as ‘alette’.
1959 P. Collins Concrete viii. 186 The entasis of the main columns and the method of joining beams to them with intermediate frames or alettes betokened a regard for the finer subtleties of trabeated articulation.
1972 Jrnl. Soc. Archit. Historians 31 248/2 The Ionic pilasters on the alettes of the arches at Poggioreale would have been similar to those in the nave of, say, Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi in Florence.
2000 J. Pereira Baroque India vi. 345 The alettes contain niches, hollowed or flat, with arched tops crowned by pediments supported by the arch itself and not by columns.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2012; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1810